Community Profiles / Hamilton Region
Hamilton
71 Main Street West
Hamilton 905-546-2489
https://www.hamilton.ca/
Hamilton is an industrial city in the Golden Horseshoe at the west end of Lake Ontario. It has a population of over 550,000. The city is about 40 miles southwest of Toronto. Residents of the city are known as Hamiltonians. The region is the ninth largest in Canada and the third largest in Ontario.
Hamilton offers its residents a wonderful mix of arts, entertainment and recreation. He city is home to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, the HMCS Haida National Historic Site, Dundurn Castle, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the African Lion Safari Park, the Cathedral of Christ the King, the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre, and the Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology. In addition, the city is home to a vast collection of public art. There are currently 40 pieces in the Public Art Collection. The works are owned and maintained by the city to be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. Founded in 1914, the Art Gallery of Hamilton is Ontario’s third largest public art gallery.
The McMaster Museum of Art (MMA), founded at McMaster University in 1967, houses and exhibits the university’s art collection of more than 7,000 objects, including historical, modern and contemporary art. The city has an active theatre scene, with the professional company Theatre Aquarius, plus long-time amateur companies, the Players’ Guild of Hamilton and Hamilton Theatre Inc.. Many smaller theatre companies have also opened in the past decade, bringing a variety of theatre to the area. Hamilton has vibrant performing arts scene as well. Supercrawl is a large community arts and music festival that takes place in September in the James Street North area of the city drawing well over 200,000 visitors.
Beyond the arts, Hamilton offers its residents all of the other amenities you would expect form a city of its size. There are shopping opportunities galore, whether in a regional mall or a local boutique. Dining and nightlife are also abundant throughout the many districts within the city. Food choices run from the large chain type restaurants to quaint local restaurants and of course cuisines from all over the world.
Hamilton’s major sports complexes include Tim Hortons Field and First Ontario Centre. The city is represented by the Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League. Hamilton is home to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame museum. Forge FC is Hamilton’s soccer team in the Canadian Premier League. The team plays at Tim Hortons Field and share the venue with the Tiger-Cats. In addition the city is also home to the Hamilton Honey Badgers, Hamilton’s basketball team in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
The Hamilton region is the country’s most highly industrialized area. Manufacturing is the heart of the city and the region. The area from Oshawa, Ontario around the west end of Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls, with Hamilton at its center, is known as the Golden Horseshoe and in total has a population of more than 8 million people. With sixty percent of Canada’s steel produced in Hamilton by Stelco and Dofasco, the city has become known as the Steel Capital of Canada.
Education in the city is well represented by schools and institutions at every level. Three school boards administer public education for students from kindergarten through high school. The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board manages 114 public schools, the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board operates 55 schools. The Conseil scolaire Viamonde operates one elementary and one secondary school and the Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud operates two elementary schools and one secondary school. Calvin Christian School, Providence Christian School and Timothy Christian School are independent Christian elementary schools. Hamilton District Christian High School, Rehoboth Christian High School and Guido de Bres Christian High School are independent Christian high schools in the area. Both HDCH and Guido de Brès participate in the city’s interscholastic athletics.
Hillfield Strathallan College is on the West Hamilton mountain and is a CAIS member, non-profit school for children from early Montessori ages through grade twelve. Columbia International College is Canada’s largest private boarding high school, with 1,700 students from 73 countries. The Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts is home to many of the area’s talented young actors, dancers, musicians, singers and visual artists. The school has a keyboard studio, spacious dance studios, art and sculpting studios, gallery space and a 300-seat recital hall.
The city also has post-secondary institutions. McMaster University has more than 30,000 students, of which almost two-thirds come from outside the Hamilton region. Colleges in Hamilton include: McMaster Divinity College, Mohawk College, a college of applied arts and technology since 1967 with 10,000 full-time, 40,000 part-time, and 3,000 apprentice students and Redeemer University College, a private Christian liberal arts and science university.
Healthcare is readily available for residents of the city. The city is served by the Hamilton Health Sciences hospital network of five hospitals with more than 1,100 beds: Hamilton General Hospital, Juravinski Hospital, McMaster University Medical Centre (which includes McMaster Children’s Hospital), St. Peter’s Hospital and West Lincoln Memorial Hospital. Hamilton Health Sciences is the largest employer in the Hamilton area and serves as academic teaching hospital affiliated with McMaster University and Mohawk College. The only hospital in Hamilton not under Hamilton Health Sciences is St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, which has 777 beds and three Campuses.
Whatever the need or desire, its clear that residents in the Hamilton area have access to everything close to home. Outdoor recreation, golf, dining, entertainment the arts and more are here and waiting.
